


something better

by Areiton



Series: Tony Stark Bingo [6]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst and Fluff, Character Study, Codependency, First Kiss, Getting Together, M/M, MIT Era, Rhodey is a good friend, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony and his Bots - Freeform, military deployments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-04-02
Packaged: 2020-01-01 01:48:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18326219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Areiton/pseuds/Areiton
Summary: He never wanted to make weapons. He loved robots, loved creating, loved figuring out how to make things better. Destroying–that was never his goal.And then he met Rhodey.Tony Stark Bingo: A3 Free Space





	something better

_**I saw young Americans killed by the very weapons I created to defend them and protect them.** _

 

__

He never wanted to make weapons.  He loved robots, loved creating, loved figuring out how to make things better. Destroying–that was never his goal.

And then he met Rhodey. 

 

~*~

 

He built engines first. 

To get his father’s attention, but also because he couldn’t not--there was a burning curiosity, to know how to make them work, how to make them  _ better.  _

He made engines that could run on saline water, made engines that ran on ethanol, made engines better and cleaner and quieter and more powerful. 

And it never did make his father proud, but when he rambled at Rhodey about it, his friend smiled, his eyes bright and fond and Tony felt like maybe he was doing something right. 

 

~*~

 

He whispers about his bot to Rhodey in their little apartment in Cambridge, and Rhodey pets his hair and tells him he can create whatever he wants. 

“It'll make the world better,” he says and Rhodey smiles at him. 

“ _ You _ make the world better.”

 

~*~

 

“Why don’t you make weapons?” Rhodey asks, once. It’s right after their first, only, disastrous trip to the Stark family seat, and Howard’s dismissal of Tony’s prototype of his first bot. He laughed, and Maria stood by, pale faced and trembling as Howard called the plans dumb, a waste, a fool’s errand. 

“Because I want to create,” Tony whispers, into his friend’s shoulder, warm and solid under his lips. “I don’t--I want to be  _ better.”  _

“You already are,” Rhodey promises.

 

~*~

 

He names the bot DUM-E and he cries as it prods, gently, at his shoulder, gears whirring. 

He promises himself and his bot, he’ll do better than Howard ever did. 

 

~*~

 

“Why do you have to go?” Tony asks. He knows the answer, but he still asks. 

He knew this was coming and it still hurts. 

“I’ll be home before you know it. You won’t even miss me,” Rhodey promises. 

Tony doesn’t argue. He knows the truth--he’ll miss Rhodey like an arm, a gaping hole in the chest. 

He smiles, and says, “I’ll build you something pretty, ok?” 

Rhodey smiles, presses a kiss to his forehead and takes his bag to answer the Air Force’s call. 

 

~*~

 

He rebuilds a Roadster over the long summer without Rhodey, fills up his days with working on the engine and tinkering with DUM-E, and his empty evenings coding a project he can’t quite name yet. Obediah comes by and pokes around the workshop and Tony is glad, so glad that he hid the plans, that there’s nothing but a very pretty car for him to discover. 

“You could be helping build SI, son,” Obei says and Tony swallows around his nausea. 

He’s going to build something. 

Something  _ better. _

 

~*~

 

Rhodey comes home, thinner than Tony has ever seen him, bright with something Tony doesn’t understand, but his smile is soft for Tony, and he listens as Tony talks talks talks, desperate and incessant, until Rhodey drags him close, pins him to the couch and covers him with his weight and whispers, “I’m home, sweetheart. I’m here.” 

Rhodey doesn’t mention Tony’s tears, and Tony doesn’t mention the way Rhodey kisses them away, but it feels like something shifts between them. 

 

~*~

 

Howard and Maria die, and the world doesn’t stop, and Tony--Tony hates it for that. 

For refusing to come to a standstill with him and his grief that feels all encompassing, that feels like it will drown him. 

Rhodey presses close, holds him when he sobs in his bed, keeps Obadiah and his endless demands at bay. 

Tony thinks he wouldn’t survive, if it weren’t for Rhodey. 

And then--when the world is dark and Rhodey is his only shining light--the Air Force calls and steals him away. 

 

~*~

 

Tony is silent and furious, trembling where he leans against the doorjamb, watching Rhodey pack. They haven't argued, really--there has only been quaking anger and tense silence. 

“I don't  _ want _ to go,” Rhodey says, the night before he leaves. 

“Then don't,” Tony says, almost begs, and Rhodey sighs. 

Tony crawls in his lap and catches Rhodey's gasp with his lips, presses him into the couch, kisses him until Rhodey groans and grabs his hips and pulls him closer, rolls his hips up to grind into Tony. 

Tony mewls and it makes something in Rhodey shift. Lighten the kiss and grip on his hips, petting at Tony until he slumps, trembling, in Rhodey's arms, tears wet against his throat. 

“Don't leave me,” Tony whispers and Rhodey doesn't answer, can't answer, just tightens his grip on him and holds him through the night. 

 

~*~

 

He's gone in the morning and Tony spends it trashing his newest bot, and crying, before he drinks himself sick. 

 

~*~

 

When Rhodey comes home--Tony looks at him, a drunk, guilty smile on his lips. The apartment is trashed, pieces of a new bot mangled on the ground. There are bottles everywhere and most telling is the blonde girl passed out next to him. 

Rhodey sighs. 

He cleans Tony up, politely ushers his bedmate out and gets to work cleaning up the house. 

When he finds Tony, slumped and sobbing, in the shower, he sighs and gently gathers him up, drying him and pulling him to bed. 

“I'm sorry,” Tony whispers. “I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so fucking sorry.” 

Rhodey kisses his hair and hums until Tony exhausts himself, slumps boneless in Rhodey's arms. And then he murmurs, gently. “People fuck up, Tones. But this is your chance to be better.”

 

~*~

 

They don't talk about it. 

But Rhodey doesn't kiss him again. They step back into friendship that is  _ good _ but not everything Tony  _ wants.  _

He stops drinking, goes back to building and his classes and when Obadiah calls, he gives him control of SI. 

“I'm not a weapons builder,” he says. 

“I want to make SI into something great,” he says. 

Rhodey smiles at him. “You will.” 

 

~*~

 

Rhodey leaves and every time, Tony fights it, fights the urge to spiral into alcohol and meaningless sex. Every time, he retreats to his workshop and  _ builds _ , with shaking hands and eyes blurry with tears, and the ache of something important and missing. 

And every time, Rhodey comes home, worn and battered and beautiful, and his eyes are soft and warm and proud when he follows Tony and listens to everything he’s done, everything he’s made better, while Rhodey was gone. 

 

~*~

 

“You could work for SI, you know. It doesn’t have to be the Air Force,” Tony says. It’s a familiar offer, and Rhodey rolls his eyes and steals Tony’s beer. “I can give you a whole department, platypus.” 

“You don’t even want SI,” Rhodey says, softly and Tony blinks at him. 

“I’d take it. For you. If you wanted me too--I’d do it, for you.” 

Rhodey’s breath catches and he stares at Tony, his eyes wide and his heart pounding and Tony smiles, small and sweet. “I’d do anything for you, honeybear.” 

Rhodey pulls him into a hug that feels desperate, and Tony hums, happily, snuggling close, says cheekily, “Is that a yes?” 

Rhodey snorts. 

 

~*~

 

When Rhodey gets orders for his first deployment--not a training mission, not flight school or officer school or any of the myriad of things that have pulled him away before, but a real deployment--Tony has a panic attack that terrifies them both, and leaves them shivering together in Tony’s bed. Rhodey holds him close, pets his hair and promises to come home. 

Tony clings and blinks away his tears, and reminds himself--Rhodey has never lied. 

Never once. 

 

~*~

 

“Tony,” Rhodey whispers, and he pauses. He’s hesitant, because it’s been three years since his parents died and they kissed and he fucked up and nothing has changed since then--and everything has changed, since then. 

“Tony,” Rhodey breathes, and pulls him into bed, and it’s bittersweet, because the morning looms closer with every passing moment. 

But it’s  _ good _ , too, and with every gentle kiss, every slow thrust and whispered promise, it’s even  _ better.  _

 

~*~

 

“I’ll be home before you know it. You won’t even miss me,” Rhodey promises. 

He smiles, and says, “I’ll build you something pretty, ok?” 

 

~*~

 

The first deployment, Tony finishes the coding and JARVIS is born, better than any of his ‘bots, better than even Tony had hoped, and he thinks--this. This could make the world better. 

This could make SI  _ great. _

JARVIS and his bots. They're his greatest creation.

 

~*~

 

Rhodey adores JARVIS, with the same whole hearted love he gave DUM-E and U and Butterfingers. 

He watches Tony like he’s  _ proud, _ like Tony is brilliant and fascinating and everything he could ever want, and Tony wonders--maybe it’s not about being better than Howard. 

Maybe it’s about being good enough for Rhodey. 

 

~*~

 

“You have to think about it, kid. Stark Industries is waiting for you to get your life together.” 

“I don’t want to build weapons, Obie,” he says, earnest and ignores the way Obie’s face goes shuttered and judgmental. 

“What do you want to do?” 

Tony smiles. “I want to do something great.” 

 

~*~

 

The board hates the arc reactor. Obie hates it. There is pushback on every level, and Tony hates  _ that _ but he gets phone calls from Rhodey, scratchy and far away--he needs to work on more reliable communications, he notes absently--and he’s eager to listen, eager to hear what Tony is doing, endlessly supportive, and Tony flushes, brilliant and happy, and it’s enough. 

To keep fighting the board, to keep fighting Obie, to keep fighting public opinion. 

Rhodey’s voice has been the only one that mattered since he was fourteen. 

It’s not going to change  _ now. _

 

~*~

 

When he is twenty one, the world stops. 

It’s not the same kind of cold devastation that Howard and Maria’s deaths was. 

This is a fucking bomb going off in his life, tearing through his dreams and his plans, setting every fear he’s ever hidden away alight. And it changes. 

He sits next to Rhodey’s bedside, listens to the doctors talk about shrapnel and smart bombs and how  _ lucky _ his best friend is, and he wants to scream. 

He doesn’t. 

He waits until they’re alone, when no one can see. He presses a kiss, dry and chaste, to Rhodey’s forehead and whispers, “I promise, this won’t happen again, sweetheart. I’ll make it better.” 

 

~*~

 

Tony Stark never wanted  to make weapons.  He loved robots, loved creating, loved figuring out how to make things better. Destroying–that was never his goal.

And then he met Rhodey. Rhodey, who smiled gently and held him safe, and whispered that he could be better.

He fell in love and he  _ was,  _ he was  _ better.  _ He was  _ great.  _

He never wanted to make weapons. He wanted to build a world that was better. 

And then he fell in love and that love was threatened. 

 

~*~

 

Tony Stark takes control of SI, amid much fanfare and speculation, and Obie’s critical, assessing smile, and in a few short years, he revolutionized the weapons industry. 

He makes weapons smarter, stronger, deadlier, and every time he watches his bombs destroying something, he shoves the pain of a dream forgotten down, down, down. 

Rhodey is safe. 

Rhodey would be safe. 

He will burn the world to ash, to keep Rhodey safe. 

 

~*~

 

Sometimes, when he sits with his bots, and drinks away his guilt and regret, he let's himself miss Rhodey’s small, proud smile and the warmth of his arms. 

 

~*~

 

He fights his way out of a cave, and out of the desert, and out of the weapons game. 

And standing in his workshop in his suit, the love of his life staring at him--he sees it again. 

The tiny smile that says-- _ Tony Stark built something great.  _

 

~*~

 

It takes him a long time, to realize--that smile doesn’t quite mean what he thought it did. 

Rhodey whispers it in his ear, one night, and Tony shudders, tears pricking in his eyes, craning for a kiss he’s desperate for. 

_ You are better. You are  _ great _.  _

_ You are your greatest creation, Tony.  _

  
  
_**I had my eyes opened. I came to realize that I had more to offer this world than just making things that blow up.** _


End file.
